Stalker.

Was thinking of buying this game now that i'm close to 100% done with Metro 2033 and i won't buy the next game for some time due to me being cheap when it comes to games.. Then i remembered that i was looking into Stalker when it was first released but i never tried it.

How is stalker compared to Metro gameplay wise? Is clear sky and call of Pripyat worth it?

Stalker is a lot more open world. You are, to some extend, free to go wherever you want. It's more about exploration.
SoC has some truly excellent mods that restore some features that have been dropped prior to release. Those mods make the game really open and really, really good. Clear Sky sucked. It's ridiculously buggy (well, all Stalker games are, but this is the worst), unbalanced and uninteresting. Never finished it, too shitty. It has some nice added gameplay elements, but all in all it's boring.
CoP is a lot better. It has all the good new elements of CS but none of its shitty linearity and bullshit. I refused to buy it for quite a long time because GSC Gameworld sucks, but in the end I got it at a Steam sale and I was pleasantly surprised. CoP is actually good, although it should have had more underground levels.
So yeah, the Stalker games are worth it. Compilations with all three of them should be dirt cheap, go for it.
Especially SoC has some awesome moments (the underground labs. Holy shit, those were creepy), and if you use a mod like Oblivion Lost you get a really great game.

Stalker is a lot more open world. You are, to some extend, free to go wherever you want. It's more about exploration.
SoC has some truly excellent mods that restore some features that have been dropped prior to release. Those mods make the game really open and really, really good. Clear Sky sucked. It's ridiculously buggy (well, all Stalker games are, but this is the worst), unbalanced and uninteresting. Never finished it, too shitty. It has some nice added gameplay elements, but all in all it's boring.
CoP is a lot better. It has all the good new elements of CS but none of its shitty linearity and bullshit. I refused to buy it for quite a long time because GSC Gameworld sucks, but in the end I got it at a Steam sale and I was pleasantly surprised. CoP is actually good, although it should have had more underground levels.
So yeah, the Stalker games are worth it. Compilations with all three of them should be dirt cheap, go for it.
Especially SoC has some awesome moments (the underground labs. Holy shit, those were creepy), and if you use a mod like Oblivion Lost you get a really great game.

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Pretty much this. Clear Sky is good for continuity reasons; it shows you how Strelok got involved with monolith, and it does introduce some nice features that were later refined in CoP. But yeah, CS is kind of a cheating and buggy pain in the ass :/

I've only played SoC once, without mods, but that game really blew me away.
It has a really good story when compared to other shooters (hell, when compared with many other contemporary games), very interesting levels and enemies, and is, in general, fun.
It suffers from some repetition when it comes to missions (e.g. kill X mutants) and such, but in the end, there's plenty of it to discover in more than one playthrough.

However, what I've appreciated most about that game is the atmosphere - I don't want to spoil it, but that game has some really good, memorable moments.

I also recommend reading a book "Roadside Picnic" by Brothers Strugatsky and watching Tarkovsky's "Stalker" for full experience.

They aren't really connected, just serving as an inspiration for another when going in chronological order, so to speak, but all three are gems in their respective fields - sci fi novels, film dramas and sci-fi games.

My biggest problem with Clear Sky is how ungodly unfair it is; the NPCs have ungodly accuracy, even when its pitch black and they spam grenades like crazy. Is there a way to remove their auto aim?

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I thought the accuracy was fine. The only thing I usually change is the damage modifier. Vanilla CS features crazy Terminator enemies that could only be taken down with headshots. I just port Call of Pripyat values.

My biggest problem with Clear Sky is how ungodly unfair it is; the NPCs have ungodly accuracy, even when its pitch black and they spam grenades like crazy. Is there a way to remove their auto aim?

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I thought the accuracy was fine. The only thing I usually change is the damage modifier. Vanilla CS features crazy Terminator enemies that could only be taken down with headshots. I just port Call of Pripyat values.

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Yeah, that was another thing that annoyed me; the bloated health values. The zombies, for example, are just ridiculous

Hmm I need to get around to playing Clear Sky, some fine fella gifted it to me but never got around to it. The faction stuff always sounded interesting.
Sounds a bit harsh vanilla though, hate bullet sponges with a passion.

I like Clear Sky too, especially when you unlock the faction wars' full potential.

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How do you do that? In vanilla all that happens is that whenever you leave an outpost it gets under attack immediately. Supremely annoying.

CS simply pissed me off to no end. You can't avoid losing all your cash at one point. There's a constant barrage of „Oh noes, we're under attack, help us!!11“. And the fucking bugged blowouts. Everytime I leave an area a fucking blowout happens.
And the main quest was really boring. At one point it's nothing more than an endurance round. You fight your way through billions of bulletspngezombies and then you have to chase Strelok with no way to get somewhere to replenish your stuff.
Never got further than that, my PC died when I got to that point once and I always got bored before I got there again.

I mean, no arguing here. The setting is awesome. But thats a given, considering the source material, Tschernobyle, Roadside Picnic, Tarkovsky's "Stalker".

And when ever they stop following that sources, when the "game story" kicks in, it somehow doesn't feel very immersive. At least for me.

As far as shooters goes, Stalker was "fun", no doubts here. The mechanics have been alright, except for your weapons degrading, I hated that part. I really hated it. And I was very glad when mods fixed that. But I personally have yet to find a game that is doing that part well. I mean imagine that, not even Arma, a "military infantry combat simulator" thing ... isn't doing it.

But as said. I always had trouble to get involved in the story somehow. I think it has to do with the way how they do the narrative part, I mean how you are guided trough the story and world. I always had the feeling it lacked here something, be it strong memorable characters, NPCs or more interaction with the world. It was better in Call of Pripjat, but even there they made in my eyes a lot of mistakes.

Take the beginning of Call of Pripjat. You get a very short text explaining your mission. And that was it. Bam. You start in the zone with a rifle. Wow. I mean yes, I know that is basically what all games do, more or less. But, the good games with a strong story, do a bit more here. For example instead of a "text", a short briefing in a room with a general explaining you the task in front of you, talking directly to you and thus giving you a chance to feel attached to your character, Metro is a great example for a game that is doing it well. Or instead of just dropping you in the zone, why not a jump from a helicopter? Or a jeep etc. It would have been also good if you had to actually get in contact with your Headquarter at some point, giving them updates to your mission and so on. I think the story could have been told in much better ways without really changing it, but simply making it more you know "human".

Though if you can overlook that part, then I guess you can have a lot of fun with the game. I mean call of Pripjat was after all a pretty neat game. But I somehow lost the interest in it ... as said ... the story simply stoped to motivate me at some point.

Bought the SOC COP pack just now and i'm going to play SOC first and then maybe buy clear sky before going continue with COP. I guess i should get some mods to improve graphic, bug fixing and stuff lika that.

Stalker Complete 2009, The Stalker Mod Compilation and Zone Reclamation Project looks like a safe bet and then i saw some suggestions like L.U.R.K. and Oblivion lost.. But they add a bit to much for someone who haven't even tried the game? I don't mind the difficulty but i do not like having way to many new things in a game i haven't touched yet.